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I was delighted by the new book by Molly Stevens called "All About Roasting".
I thought I knew all about roasting until I picked up this book. I have been cooking roast dinners for more years than I care to remember so my expectations of learning anything new were very low. And I have to admit I was somewhat prejudiced in my outlook, after all how can anyone from outside the UK, the country famous for its roast beef and Yorkshire pudding, tell us how to cook a...

Glad it's not just me either. I had never watched Nigella before so had deliberately sat down to see what I had been missing. I am still wondering what I had been missing! I don't go for sexy in the kitchen . . . not that I found her sexy!
I don't suppose she would find me sexy either but then again I am not paid to flaunt my stuff (false smiles and all) on the TV. I am amazed she has become a celebrity TV cook. Takes all sorts I suppose.
At least my bandwagon is my...

As I was recovering from an overdose of cooking programmes I decided to give it a miss. It seems to me that there are far too many second rate cooking programmes being created at the moment. I am glad I decided to miss this one.
Think of a gimmick then make a programme around it seems to be the general idea at the moment
I saw the first episode of Nigella's new series . . . half way through I couldn't watch anymore. It seemed so false and contrived.
Watch out!...

I made a point of watching it as I wanted to see what Marco Pierre White would be like . . . I had just finished reading his autobiography. A good read if that sort of thing interests you.
I have also been watching the Raymond Blanc series The Restaurant on a Wednesday and Thursday night (makes you cringe) which has meant two solid hours of cooking which is perhaps a bit much!

This recipe for Marco Pierre White's Fish Pie from H e l l's Kitchen is not his actual recipe but I was so impressed with the simplicity of how he made it that I decided to create my own.
Watching Marco Pierre White conduct his master classes on H e l l's Kitchen one thing was very obvious . . . keep it simple, let the food speak for itself. I have therefore made this recipe very simple and one that even the most inexperienced can make successfully. The taste is just...

This is correct but since caul is almost impossible to get hold of these days it has been dropped from the recipe.
I don't know about the origins or the Italian name but I did receive an email some years ago about Fegatelli.
This was what the email said:
What memories!
I used to eat faggots at my Nan's house too. My father was Welsh and I spent the first four years of my life in Caernafonshire. I never knew they were made of pig's livers! Nan and Tad died when I...

The word faggot has the same meaning in the UK although it has fallen into disuse. It is really a bit like the word gay which we no longer use to describe someone who is happy. Who starts these things.
In the UK a fag has two meanings:
a cigarette
"Fag" was a term used for a junior boy who acted as a servant for a senior boy at British public schools.
I had to do that last one in my school days!
The various meanings are found on Wikipedia...

I can still remember, when I was six or seven years old, travelling down to Ponterdawe in South Wales for the weekend to see my Grandmother. We would arrive just in time for lunch on a Saturday. She had a Bullmastiff dog called Gellert. The problem was she had always fed him titbits from the table - a big mistake as this causes the dog to drool all the time.
In those days all little boys used to wear shorts!
Lunch would always be home made faggots with peas, all...

Having spent the last eighteen months helping people who organise cooking vacations or culinary tours to promote what they do I thought it was about time to check to see if I am heading in the right direction.
(Even if you have never been on a cooking vacation or culinary tour I would be interested in your opinion.)
Where would you look for such a vacation in the first place – the Internet or a travel agent?
If you were searching on Google for such a holiday what...